December 13, 2025 — Dalena Reporters
A powerful winter storm sweeping across the Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of at least 14 Palestinians, including three children, as freezing temperatures, torrential rain, flooding and collapsing shelters compounded the region’s deep humanitarian crisis, authorities and witnesses reported.
According to the Gaza-based Health Ministry, the fatalities were recorded over a 72-hour period as Storm Byron bore down on the overcrowded and largely unprotected enclave. Displaced families, many already enduring precarious conditions in tents and temporary shelters, faced insurmountable challenges as the storm inundated fragile encampments, turned streets into rivers of mud and exposed the severe vulnerabilities of camps that have endured more than two years of conflict and destruction.
“The mattress, the blanket, everything, even the clothes, have become soaked with water,” said one displaced resident, Um Mustafa, speaking to international media from her flooded tent camp. “Bring me a mattress. Bring me a tent. I beg you, for God’s sake, help me.
The dead included three children, who succumbed to hypothermia or exposure to the cold after shelters were flooded or structures weakened by prior bombardments collapsed upon families sheltering inside, local civil defence sources said. In one incident, a five-story damaged building in Gaza City gave way under the storm’s force, killing several people as relatives and rescue workers searched for survivors amid the wreckage.
Among the victims was an eight-month-old baby, Rahaf Abu Jazar, who died of cold exposure after rainwater filled her family’s tent in Khan Younis. At nearby shelters and makeshift camps, civil defence teams reported hundreds of distress calls as residents struggled to salvage possessions and fortify unstable tents against rising water and winds.
The storm’s impact was not limited to loss of life: at least 27,000 tents and temporary shelters were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, according to statements by local authorities and civil defence crews. With much of Gaza’s housing stock already reduced to rubble by years of Israeli bombardments, makeshift shelter remains the only refuge for many of the territory’s roughly 1.5 million displaced people, leaving them particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events.
Humanitarian organizations such as Oxfam warned that the tragedy reflects not solely natural forces but the broader humanitarian catastrophe gripping Gaza, where derelict infrastructure, restricted access to basic materials and ongoing bottlenecks in aid deliveries have made populations more susceptible to harm. Aid workers reported families wading through sewage-filled floodwaters, their belongings ruined and their options for safer shelter exhausted.
The storm struck despite a ceasefire agreement reached in October, which has largely halted active hostilities between Israel and Hamas. However, officials and analysts note that the truce has not translated into significant improvements in living conditions for most Gazans, as reconstruction remains limited and access to winter supplies — including tents, tarpaulins, sandbags and heating equipment — continues to be constrained.
An Israeli military agency responsible for managing humanitarian coordination stated that it had facilitated the entry of thousands of tents, tarpaulins and other aid items into Gaza under the ceasefire arrangements, but acknowledged that current supplies are inadequate to withstand the severe winter conditions. Palestinian authorities and humanitarian groups have called for an urgent expansion of winterization supplies and unfettered access to critical materials to prevent further loss of life.
The deaths prompted fresh appeals from relief organizations and local leaders for international intervention to bolster shelter infrastructure and protect the displaced from future climatic shocks. As Gazans cope with relentless adversity, the latest tragedy has highlighted how weather events intersect with deeper political, logistical and humanitarian failures, leaving civilians to confront devastation long after active conflict has ceased.